By Michael P. Doukas and Kenneth A. McGee

2007

Map of the Cook Inlet area and upper Alaska Peninsula showing the location of the volcanoes included in this report. Crosses designate volcanoes where measurements have been made. Veniaminof volcano is off the map to the WSW. (from figure 1).

This report presents gas emission rates from data collected during numerous airborne plume-measurement flights at Alaskan volcanoes since 1995. These flights began in about 1990 as means to establish baseline values of volcanic gas emissions during periods of quiescence and to identify anomalous levels of degassing that might signal the beginning of unrest. The primary goal was to make systematic measurements at the major volcanic centers around the Cook Inlet on at least an annual basis, and more frequently during periods of unrest and eruption. A secondary goal was to measure emissions at selected volcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula. While the goals were not necessarily met in all cases due to weather, funding, or the availability of suitable aircraft, a rich dataset of quality measurements is the legacy of this continuing effort. An earlier report (Doukas, 1995) presented data for the period from 1990 through 1994 and the current report provides data through 2006.

This report contains all of the available measurements for SO2, CO2, and H2S emission rates in Alaska determined by the U. S. Geological Survey from 1995 through 2006; airborne measurements for H2S began in Alaska in 2001.

The results presented here are from Cook Inlet volcanoes at Spurr, Crater Peak, Redoubt, Iliamna, and Augustine and cover periods of unrest at Iliamna (1996) and Spurr (2004-2006) as well as the 2006 eruption of Augustine. Additional sporadic measurements at volcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula (Douglas, Martin, Mageik, Griggs, Veniaminof, Ukinrek Maars, Peulik, and Fourpeaked during its 2006 unrest) are also reported here.